OCR has announced its key involvement in a French government funded (FUI*) research programme in collaboration with renowned partners Ecrins Therapeutics, a pioneering French biotech (Grenoble), Professor Jean-Yves Blay from the Léon Bérard Centre (Lyon) and Dr. Catherine André from the Institute of Genetics and Development (Rennes). The ambitious multi- million, three-year translational project has the double objective of using data collected from canine pre-clinical studies to accelerate and optimise their human equivalents and of developing a veterinary product for the treatment of sarcomas in dogs.
The cross-cooperation research will combine complimentary veterinary, biology, genetic and pharmacology expertise in order to advance the parallel development of ET-D5 for the treatment of human and canine sarcomas. ET-D5, Ecrins Therapeutics’ lead candidate, is a first-in-class small molecule drug candidate that is currently being developed for several oncology indications. It has already been proven to present outstanding anti-vascular and cytostatic properties, as well as interesting pharmacological properties and a good toxicology profile.
The parallel co-development project will initially concentrate on creating a biobank of canine sarcoma tissue samples for molecular, genetic and histopathological analysis and characterization. After pre- clinical studies in the areas of toxicology, efficacy and dosage, the researchers hope to benefit from the resulting pre-clinical data to initiate enhanced human and canine clinical studies at the beginning of 2017. This project excels not only in the area of scientific interest but also demonstrates the concrete benefits of comparative research.
Mr. Andrei Popov, President and CEO of Ecrins Therapeutics, commented, “We approached OCR because of their experience in comparative oncology research. Both companies are convinced of the remarkable similarities between the emergence, development, treatment options and more importantly, responses to therapies for tumours that occur in humans and pets. There is significant scientific and commercial potential in parallel research in order to fast-track innovative canine and human treatments.”
Dr. Dominique Tierny, CEO of OCR, is committed to promoting the duality of human and ethical pet oncology research, “OCR is proud to increase its research capability and play a leading role in this parallel research endeavour which brings together some of the key influencers in oncology research. We continue to be at the forefront of human and veterinary interdisciplinary cooperation in our battle against cancer and hope that this project will further highlight the unimagined benefits of combining the two.”
This project will reinforce OCR’s research capability in the area of comparative medicine and also expand the company’s existing canine and feline biobank, widening its “in vitro” offering for future anti- cancer initiatives.
Moreover, positive results from this project will allow OCR and Ecrins Therapeutics to initiate the development of a much needed oncology therapeutic candidate to treat sarcomas in dogs for the veterinary medicine market.
*FUI – “Fonds Unique Interministériel” – This is a French government research fund dedicated to innovative, collaborative research programmes which have been approved by national competiveness clusters. In this case, the project was supported by the Nutrition, Health and Longevity Cluster in Lille and Lyon Biopole.
